Plumpest Peach Presents!

Have you heard about our partnership with the Plumpest Peach? Owner Jessica Bongard creates inspired slow food menus to satisfy nearly any palate. She sources all her ingredients locally, and when the situation calls for it, she includes specialty ingredients as well. We are lucky to have her exercise her creative menu crafting for the Slow Food audience, with extremely fun and inspired theme classes.

So far this year we have had several classes, with themes ranging from wine and cheese to milk and honey to raw food to heirloom tomatoes to ginger. All the themes are unique and all taught in Jessica’s certified home kitchen in Jericho, VT. She is a teacher with a hearty wit, always ready to share her knowledge and seasoned opinions on how one should do a technique, but open to sharing the collective knowledge of the class attendees, which really sets her classes apart from a traditional cooking class.

Jessica calls her classes “glorified dinner parties”, and the feel is exactly that. You enter her spacious kitchen/dining area greeted with a theme cocktail, where all attendees get to know each other while Jessica shares the agenda for the class – presented in a nicely printed packet of recipes, ingredient sources and photos. The class begins casually, as the first recipe is prepped. Some attendees are eager to help, others are eager to watch, and the recipe is made under Jess’ watchful eye – she allows ample time for socializing while being mindful of timings, temperatures and cooling, so that we end with a perfect result for each recipe. Finally, when all the recipes are complete, we sit at her large Basque-style farmhouse table and dig in.

I can hardly wait until her next class, the last for 2011, Vine Intervention – all things grape. This is going to be a fabulous one – right after Thanksgiving, when you are all cooked-out; come to a class where you can participate or not, learn a lot, meet fabulous people, and share an incredible meal in a convivial setting!